Lizards & Snakes: Alive!

Small and shy—or big and fierce? Bright as a jewel—or hardly visible? Four legs? Two legs? No legs at all? When you're talking about lizards and snakes—the squamates—the answer is usually.... Yes!

This ancient group, whose scientific name is Latin for "scaled," is more diverse than mammals, as old as dinosaurs. And they're almost everywhere: harsh desert to lush rainforest, high in the treetops, beneath the ground. Whatever the environment, one of the 8,000 squamate species on Earth calls it home. We share the planet, but we often overlook these quiet neighbors. So welcome to the world of squamates, and get ready to be surprised!

Sight is supreme for the iguanas and their relatives, a group of about 1,400 species that some experts call the "sight hounds" of the squamate world. Like humans, these animals rely mostly on vision, not smell, to find their dinners and their mates . . . and to figure out what other members of their species are telling them.

For some squamates, the world is alive with chemical cues. Prey, predators, mates and favorite burrows--each has a distinct chemical signature, or scent. Every animal in this exhibition can respond to these cues; all have nostrils and can smell.

At times during the past, close relatives of some of the animals on display grew to enormous size. The largest monitor on Earth today is the fierce Komodo Dragon, but it's dwarfed by these members of its family tree.

Flicking tongues. Unblinking stares. Incredible agility--but no visible arms or legs. The creatures surrounding you must be the planet's most intriguing, most misunderstood animals. They are squamates without limbs; you probably know them as snakes.

As Associate Dean of Science for Collections, Darrel R. Frost is responsible for overseeing the use and maintenance of the American Museum of Natural History's permanent collection of more than 30 million specimens and cultural artifacts.

The American Museum of Natural History's Department of Ichthyology and Herpetology was founded in 1909, and in 1919 Herpetology (the study of amphibians and reptiles) became an independent Department of Herpetology under its first curator, Mary C. Dickerson.